I watched some of the LSU and A&M game and the Aggies played 10 guys and none of them was Collins. Is he injured or just not that good. By the way very impressed with the way LSU handled Buzz and his team in Texas.
Damion Collins
- Thread starter UKTOPDOG
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TAMU has lost 3 of its last five and is looking at another loss traveling to Auburn before they play us.
He's plays for LSU. He separated his shoulder a month or so ago he came back the previous game and played 13 minutes. Even when healthy he won't have a huge role.
Collins was a 5-star recruit that every coach in the country was recruiting. Let's not play revisionist history.
He has had a tough college career for sure. I hope he gets it turned around...the talent is there without question.
He may have been better served to went "home" and played for Stephen F Austin.
Lucas pushed him to Cal.
He (Jai) just wanted to show Cal he could get Texas players.
He's simply a bust.....he's doing squat for LSU as well.
6 games played....he's scored 11 pts, 9 pts, 4 pts, 2 pts, 0 pts and 0 pts. He is still allergic to rebounds, etc..
To upgrade to Mitchell vs. Collins is huge lift in ability and just basketball skill. His HS rating had to based upon seeing him in dunking contest/warmups. Dude had hardly any skill and IQ in bball....not to mention his body was woefully thin.
6 games played....he's scored 11 pts, 9 pts, 4 pts, 2 pts, 0 pts and 0 pts. He is still allergic to rebounds, etc..
To upgrade to Mitchell vs. Collins is huge lift in ability and just basketball skill. His HS rating had to based upon seeing him in dunking contest/warmups. Dude had hardly any skill and IQ in bball....not to mention his body was woefully thin.
The important thing, though, is to mock people in public.
I don't know that anyone is mocking him.
It's a message board. We come here to talk about things. This is a thing.
The dude was ranked a five star, had a freakish 7’5” wingspan, had a freakish vertical leap of something like 45”, was also a pogo stick quick jumper (and actually did have a decent looking shot). At least in terms of physical traits, I’m not sure we’ve had any recruit other than Anthony Davis with such a combination of length and athletic explosiveness. So I can hardly blame Cal for wanting to recruit that guy.
It’s a shame he can’t put it together on the court. At the very least, you’d think he’d be able to parlay those physical gifts into being an elite shotblocker. But he just doesn’t seem to have the right instincts for it.
Seems like the quintessential "Athlete-first/Basketball player-second" that has burned us several times.
Dude lost his dad , who got him into the sport, that’s not easy to bounce back from.
I hope he does well.
I hope he does well.
I think he had shown some hints of shooting range, but it never developed at the college level.
But he was definitely the old guard of Calipari recruits in the super athlete below average basketball player mold.
Probably because he had some success with a pogo stick named Anthony Davis.
There are a lot of guys over the years that have dominated in high school based solely off size.
There are a lot of high school basketball regions where there might be 1 or 2 guys taller than 6’6 on all the teams combined.
I always think of Brandon Bender for Ballard. He was 3-4 inches taller than everyone else on the court every night. Dude was a stiff and lazy as hell but couldn’t help but get rebounds and buckets because no one else in that region had a guy his size. But he still got a ton of D1 offers and a top 50 ranking.
There are a lot of high school basketball regions where there might be 1 or 2 guys taller than 6’6 on all the teams combined.
I always think of Brandon Bender for Ballard. He was 3-4 inches taller than everyone else on the court every night. Dude was a stiff and lazy as hell but couldn’t help but get rebounds and buckets because no one else in that region had a guy his size. But he still got a ton of D1 offers and a top 50 ranking.
Probably true for Atlanta, TX where the population is 5,500 people.
Anthony Davis had guard skills before the growth spurt. Collins never showed those abilities. Definitely not a fair comparison. A fair one might be comparing Collins to Marcus Lee.
He could shoot. When we came back from the Bahamas and everyone was sky high on the team playing those scrimmages I said the only way Collins would play was as a shooting guard.
But he didn’t have the handle for that.
You could always tell he wasn’t going to play inside.
I honestly don’t think he loves basketball. He never seemed to be enjoying himself that much and once his dad died I think he lost his reason to play. He’s had a rough go. Pray he finds his true joy.
I lost one of my music mentors a couple of years ago. Took awhile before I could play again. Stuff is real and when someone you cared about passes (that got you really into something) it takes a good while to find mo in that activity again.
Every 5 star doesn’t pan out . It happens and I’m not sure you can blame Cal for recruiting him when he was putting up big numbers and producing in high school. Some people can’t adjust to the college game .
He also has had family issues . I’m pulling for him
He also has had family issues . I’m pulling for him
Every single team has lots of transfers. All of them. "Retarded" for giving a kid a chance that he thought might develop? I mean wow.
Collins is one of my favorite recruits we have had at UK. I will be pulling for him to succeed wherever he goes.
Yea I get that but Collins literally doesn’t do anything great except measurables. Can’t really shoot, can’t really rebound well, I mean at some point you can’t just be a pogo stick. Personally I wouldn’t recruit guys like that, and as we see, he was nothing here. Wingspan aside.
I'll always remember him for this dunk!
Umm, even mentioning, at any level, Collins with AD is not something that’s going to make sense to a lot of people. AD has skill, Collins has none.
My take…. he didn’t even play basketball or lift wights until he was a junior in HS….. just too big of a learning curve / experience level to overcome to play at a high D1 level…… despite his freakish athletic gifts.
You had a crystal ball and knew his high school stats and off the chart measurable wouldn't translate to the college game? Dude was an absolute stud, filled up buckets and averaged mid teen rebounds per game and 7 blocks a game in high school. Every high level school recruited him, he was a good get at the time. No onencould have known it would pan out how it didm
"As a junior, Collins averaged 24.6 points, 13.7 rebounds and 7.7 blocks per game. In his senior season, he averaged 35.2 points, 14.4 rebounds, seven assists and 6.2 blocks per game, earning Texas Gatorade Player of the Year and District 14-3A MVP honors"
I always though Collins was overrated and didn't understand how some folks on this board thought he was exceptional. Super tall string bean bigs always have similar problems....they have no backside to establish position inside, and their lateral quickness is usually very suspect. Unless they have ball skills (catch/shoot/pass), like Bradshaw, they never pan out.
Thank you for this reasonable and thoughtful post. I hope he crushes it.
Collins was a guy Jai Lucas identified and recruited. From a small program in TX and never proved he could compete against high major talent.
I hope the kid succeeds but he needed to transfer down the the mid major level. Also the SEC might not be the best conference for him. Hes a better athlete than basketball player right now.
I hope the kid succeeds but he needed to transfer down the the mid major level. Also the SEC might not be the best conference for him. Hes a better athlete than basketball player right now.
Has there ever been a UK dunk with the take off point further from the rim than that one? Dude really is an amazing physical specimen.
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